thoughts on Jehovah

As mentioned in a previous post, I have been reading literature on Jehovah as the name of God.  I suppose that initially I was skeptical, but the more I read the more I wanted to share the knowledge with everyone.


Isaiah 12:4 says, "In that day you will say:
Give thanks to the [Lord], call on his name; 
make known among the nations what he has done, 
and proclaim that his name is exalted.

So if we are to call on his name, what name would that be?

As a child and teenager, I was taught God's name is God.  This is due to the fact that there are no other Gods, and there is no other way to describe him.  I have always thought the explaination was a bit lame, but in the Witness literature there is a blurb about this point of view.


"Some suggest another reason: The Jews may have been influence by Greek philosphy.  For example, Philo, a Jewish philosopher of Alexandria who was approximately contemporary with Jesus, was greated influenced by the Greek philosopher Plato, who he thought was divinely inspired.  The Lexikon des Judentums (Lexicon of Judaism), under 'Philo,' state that Philo 'united the language and ideas of Greek philosophy (Plato) with the revealed faith of the Jews' and that to begin he 'had a visible effect upon the Christian church fathers.'  Philo taught that God was indefinable and, hence, unnameable."

I am glad to know that what learned was based on ancient writings.  Unfortunately the idea that God doesn't have a name bothers me.  I realize that the "pagan" gods had names (i.e. Zeus, Aries, Thor, etc.), but to not rightly acknowledge the Jehovah name because he is greater is just ridiculous.

In my research, I was surprised to find the Jesus was actually Yeshua in the Hebrew scriptures.  Yeshua is short for Yehoshua or Joshua, and means Yahweh (Jehovah) is salvation.  So Jesus's name even spoke of Jehovah, interesting, eh?

Another interesting fact is the expression, "Hallelujah!"  The Hebrew word is made up of two words: "Hallel," which means praise; and "Jah," which means Jahovah.  So during church services we sing and shout praises to Jahovah, and don't even realize what we are doing.  At least I never knew what the word meant.

Giving Jehovah God a title like Lord, Almighty, God, etc. doesn't seem to convey the true meaning of his name.  It also becomes confusing for me when there are two Lords (Jehovah and Jesus).  Psalm 110 says, "The Lord says to my Lord: 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.'  So is that Jehovah talking to Jesus?  Or something entirely different?  Confusion of the these titles often is what bores me about the Bible.  When one can't follow a story, one cannot stay interested.

The research I've done recently has really opened my eyes to the desception of the church.  Whether one believes in Jesus or not, there is impericle evidence that God's name was Jehovah.  It doesn't matter why the name was omitted from the new translations and versions of the Bible, what matters is that it was omitted.  And most Christians look at the Witnesses as this bizarre cult of people who worship this Jehovah God person.  I must admit, I used to.  That is, until I met Bonnie.

At this point, I don't see myself becoming a Witness.  However, I do believe their views on Jehovah should be respected and aknowledged as truth from other Christians.